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Title: UTILIZING PERENNIAL WARM-SEASON GRASS PASTURES FOR FINISHING BEEF CATTLE

Author
item Phillips, William
item Brown, Michael
item HOLLOWAY, WILLIAM - TEXAS A&M EXT. & RESEAR
item Grings, Elaine
item Mayeux Jr, Herman

Submitted to: Proceedings of the National Conference on Grazing Lands
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/12/2006
Publication Date: 12/11/2007
Citation: Phillips, W.A., Brown, M.A., Holloway, W., Grings, E.E., Mayeux Jr, H.S. 2007. Utilizing perennial warm-season grass pastures for finishing beef cattle [abstract]. Proceedings, 3rd National Conference on Grazing Lands, 498-499.

Interpretive Summary: ABSTRACT ONLY

Technical Abstract: In the southern Great Plains, most stocker production systems are based on two forage resources. These resources are annual cool-season grasses and perennial warm-season grasses. Usually one set of stockers are purchased to graze each forage resource, but stocker systems based on warm-season grasses are more economically volatile and have less net return per acre than systems based on cool-season grasses. Producers need new options for marketing perennial warm-season grasses that result in less economic risk and greater net returns. One option that has not been fully explored is to retain stocker calves at the end of the cool-season grazing period and to finish them on the farm. The farm-finishing program we developed and tested uses a combination of short duration intensive grazing of perennial warm-season grasses early in the grazing season to maximize animal performance followed by ad libitum access to a high energy diet in a self-feeder on pasture to achieve the body weight and degree of fatness needed to produce an animal ready for harvest. During the finishing phase, calves finished on warm-season grass pastures with ad libitum access to a high-energy diet had greater net returns than calves finished in dry lot under conventional feedlot management (-$34.45 vs. -$51.62 per calf). Because the warm season grass provided almost a month of high quality forage, calves finished on pasture needed less feed to reach harvest weight as compared to calves finished in total confinement. Calves finished on pasture produced a carcass with less external fat. Calves purchased in the fall and used as stockers though the winter and spring can be retained and finished on the farm using warm-season grass pastures. Retaining ownership also allowed producers to take advantage of any compensatory gain built into the calves. Because calves finished on pasture distribute waste products onto the pasture each day, cost of animal waste disposal was zero and nitrogen not retained by the animal can be recycled through the next forage crop.